Goals

IBACS has five primary goals:

  • Provide researchers at UConn and beyond with the environment to produce world-class research, innovation and discovery, including shared infrastructure, instruments, resources, time, and the opportunity to engage in collaborations with world-renowned visiting scholars. Seed money will be available through annual competition for collaborative research (requiring expertise across existing laboratories and disciplinary boundaries) on behavior, computation, neuroimaging, genomics, and bench neuroscience, or small equipment. One of the missions of the Institute is to ensure sustainability; projects funded through the seed and fellowship mechanisms will generally be expected to form the basis for subsequent grant application.
  • To build bridges across disciplines through collaborative research projects and strategic faculty hires. We will capitalize on the success and distinctiveness of researchers and resources in the cognitive, biological, and educational sciences, as well as in the physical and mathematical sciences, and across all UConn schools and colleges. Seed money and other resources will be prioritized towards collaborations across disciplines. Visiting scholars who can strengthen the interdisciplinary ethos of the Institute will be invited for extended stays.
  • Provide unique educational experiences for UConn undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral trainees, integrating classroom- and laboratory-based training, preparing students to be leaders in basic research, applied research, education, technology and industry. To this end, undergraduate and graduate fellowships will enable students to pursue mentored interdisciplinary research with financial support from the Institute.
  • Enhance the Institute’s research activities by hosting small, focused workshops and international conferences and producing accessible research and tutorial lectures disseminated through the internet as a resource for others.
  • Serve the people of the State of Connecticut by being a resource of information and expertise with active public outreach, and an engine for application of research to educational, health, technology, and business needs.